Exeter Sportsman's Club, town officials to meet

Club has temporary permission for lighting

EXETER — Butch York, the former president of the Exeter Sportsman's Club, said he expects to meet sometime this week with several town officials to try to push forward an already approved remediation plan to dig up contaminated soil and build a berm with it at the shooting range.

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By Jeff McMenemy

seacoastonline.com

By Jeff McMenemy

Posted Oct. 29, 2013 at 2:00 AM

By Jeff McMenemy
Posted Oct. 29, 2013 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

EXETER — Butch York, the former president of the Exeter Sportsman's Club, said he expects to meet sometime this week with several town officials to try to push forward an already approved remediation plan to dig up contaminated soil and build a berm with it at the shooting range.

York said he thinks the meeting will include Town Manager Russ Dean, Selectmen Chairman Don Clement and Assistant Fire Chief Ken Berkenbush, who has been working with the club on the plan.

"I guess it's important to understand the berm is approved, the issues being talked about now are economic issues," York said during an interview Sunday.

Selectmen recently approved the remediation plan that will allow club members to remove old clay targets from the property off Portsmouth Avenue and to dig up and move soil at the club's former trap shooting range filled with lead and poly-aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) to create an 8-foot high berm on one side of the property. There is already one on the other side of the range.

The Environmental Protection Agency has stated direct exposure to PAHs can cause cancer.

The start of the process has been delayed by disputes about exactly who should pay for what and the club's earlier insistence that town officials sign a memorandum of understanding before any work was done.

But York on Sunday declined to address the MOU, saying he didn't want to engage in any discussion "that would result in any gridlock."

"As I said to you before, I think reasonable people can come to reasonable solutions," York said. "And I'm not going to paint myself into any corners."

Neighbors have also pushed to have the berm constructed because they are hopeful it will cut down on the amount of noise coming from the shooting range.

"The Sportsman's Club, town officials, the neighbors, everyone wants to get this done," York said about building the berm. "It's just a matter of working out some details."

In addition to the berm issue, York said he received permission from the Planning Board on Thursday to install lights at the club on a temporary basis so board members can see what they look like before voting on a request from the club to put up the lights permanently at the range.

Club officials have said they want to install the lights so members can shoot until 7:30 p.m., as the lease on the town-owned land allows.

"I promised them I won't do any shooting under the lights until we get their thumbs up," York said Sunday.

He plans to order the lights this week, but isn't sure how long it will take for them to arrive so the board can visit the club again.

At an earlier visit, members said the lights didn't meet the town's dark sky zoning regulations and club members will work to address that, York said.

"We'll ready the site and we'll put them up and aim and measure them," York said.